Boat Charters Charleston SC

The first canal ever built in the USA was the Santee Cooper Canal. The Cooper river only used to begin around the Monks Corner area of SC. The Santee River flowed all the way down from the Appalachian Mountains and emptied into the Georgetown area. Products from the upstate were shipped down the Santee River to Georgetown and then loaded onto ocean going vessels and brought to Charleston where they were then shipped through out the world. A lot of cargo was lost on the ocean voyage so the plan to build a canal that connected the Santee river to the Cooper river was developed. The building of the canal was held up during the American Revolution, but was completed shortly afterwards. Prominent citizens such as Francis Marion, William Moultrie, and others were involved investing to build the canal.

How a tiny island helped build a colony?

When the king claimed Carolina for England, it was great news for the British colony on the island of Barbados. Barbados had been settled by the British in 1629 and become extremely wealthy from the cultivation of sugar cane. Once the Dutch fleeing the Catholic inquisition in South America arrived on the island they brought sugar refining technology that helped to explode the Sugar Revolution and made the island extremely wealthy. Barbados also became one of the most populated places on earth at that time and most of the rainforest was cleared to plant sugarcane. This made the wealthy planters hungry for more land and natural resources such as lumber. They became very excited with British claims in North America and began making plans to explore the area and set up a financing group called the “Barbadian Adventurers”. Several expeditions were sent to explore the region, one lead by William Henry Hilton who explored the area around Beaufort which now bears his name Hilton Head.